Bid & Pursuits Leader in Manchester

Join a global professional services leader committed to solving the world’s biggest challenges across water, energy, transport, environment and the built environment. We are seeking an experienced, commercially aware Bids and Pursuits Leader to lead our bids and proposals team, lead bid strategy and the development of high-quality proposal submissions that support GHD’s continued growth in the UK. This is a pivotal role focused on end-to-end bid planning, pursuit support, and submission preparation across strategically important opportunities that help secure meaningful work for clients and communities alike.

We operate with a collaborative, multidisciplinary model that brings together technical excellence, advisory capability and deep sector understanding. In this role, you will work across complex pursuits, helping translate GHD’s expertise into clear, client-focused proposals that differentiate our offer, improve our win rate and support long-term market positioning.

What we do

GHD is a multidisciplinary professional services business delivering advisory, digital, engineering, environmental and project delivery services across major infrastructure and community sectors. Our areas of expertise include water, energy and resources, transport, environment, sustainability and resilience, property and buildings, advisory, digital and asset management. We combine sector insight with technical depth to help clients solve complex problems, manage risk, improve performance and deliver long-term value. Our UK business works closely with global capability networks, allowing us to bring both local knowledge and international expertise to every opportunity. As we continue to grow this role will play an important part in helping us position for increasingly large, strategic and often complex pursuits.

Your responsibilities:

• Team and Function Leadership - Lead and manage the Bids and Pursuits Team, line-managing a team of Subject Matter Experts and collaborating with Marketing and Communications team members to operationalise the Bids and Pursuits function, driving technology adoption, AI, and operational efficiency into a high paced team environment.
• Bid Leadership & Submission Management - Lead and manage the preparation of bids through the full lifecycle, from early-stage pursuit strategy and planning and positioning through to storyboarding, writing, review, submission and post-submission clarification stages. Develop submission plans, manage timelines, coordinate contributors and ensure high standards of compliance, consistency and quality throughout the process.
• Opportunity Shaping & Win Strategy - Contribute to pursuit strategy by supporting bid/no-bid decision making, shaping win themes and ensuring the business is positioned effectively for the right opportunities. The Bids and Pursuits Lead will provide a critical perspective on bid readiness, resource capacity and delivery approach. You will work with business leaders, technical specialists and support teams to develop clear submission storylines and persuasive responses aligned to client drivers and evaluation criteria.
• Collaboration & Coordination - Collaborate closely with business group leads, market leads, regional leadership and technical specialists to bring together strong, client-focused submissions. Coordinate multidisciplinary contributions from technical, commercial, legal and operational stakeholders, and work externally with partner organisations where required.
• Continuous Improvement & Best Practice - Promote bid best practice across the business by improving processes, supporting lessons learned and helping teams strengthen their overall work-winning capability. Contribute to a culture of quality, accountability and collaboration across all pursuits, while helping ensure bid team effort is focused on the opportunities where it adds greatest value.

What success looks like

• First 3 months - Build a strong understanding of GHD’s sectors, service lines, governance processes and priority pursuits. Establish relationships with business group leads, market leaders, regional stakeholders and technical teams, while becoming familiar with existing bid processes, tools and the types of opportunities where the bid function is most critical.
• 3–6 months - Begin the operationalisation of the Bids and Pursuits function. Lead and support the delivery of several strategic submissions, building credibility with internal teams and contributing to stronger pursuit planning, bid quality and submission discipline across routine to complex major opportunities.
• 6–12 months - Demonstrate a measurable impact on work-winning activity through well-managed, high-quality bids that support growth across priority sectors and strengthen GHD’s market position. Contribute to increasingly complex and higher-value pursuits, including major opportunities in the water, energy, and transport markets and bids involving external delivery partners.

About you

Experience - We’d love to hear from you if you bring 6+ years of bid management experience within engineering, infrastructure, environmental consulting, business advisory, professional services or a related sector. Experience from a comparable consultancy or professional services environment would be highly valuable. You will have a strong track record of leading end-to-end submissions, managing multiple contributors and delivering high-quality proposals under tight deadlines. You should be comfortable operating across bids typically ranging from mid-value to multi-million opportunities, with the judgement to understand when a pursuit requires structured bid leadership. Experience supporting public and private sector bids, working within governance frameworks and review processes, and contributing to strategic pursuit planning is essential. Exposure to sectors such as water, transport, energy, environment, sustainability or asset management would be advantageous.

Skills & Attributes - You are a high-performing bid professional who thrives in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment, with the ability to shape compelling, client-focused submissions. You will bring:

• Excellent communication skills – strong writing and editing capability, with the ability to translate complex technical content into clear, persuasive proposals.
• Strong organisational capability – highly structured and detail-oriented, with confidence managing multiple priorities and tight deadlines.
• Commercial awareness – understanding of what drives successful bids and how to position winning responses.
• Collaborative mindset – comfortable working across multidisciplinary teams and engaging with external partners.
• Strategic input – able to contribute credibly to bid strategy while maintaining delivery discipline throughout the submission process.

About GHD - Being the best we can be is in our culture. We are a family of smart, innovative problem solvers and, as an employee-owned organisation, we take a long-term view in everything we do. We offer the opportunity to work on strategically important pursuits, collaborate with respected technical specialists and contribute directly to securing work that shapes more sustainable and resilient communities. This is an opportunity to work on increasingly significant opportunities, including major strategic programmes in the water, energy and transport sectors, while helping strengthen GHD’s broader work-winning capability across the UK. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive, and we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds.

Working Location - This role can be based in one of our UK offices and we operate a Hybrid Working Standard across the Enterprise, with a minimum of three days per week at a GHD office.

What next? - If shortlisted, our interview process will be a two-way conversation where you can learn more about our business, our sectors and the role this position plays in supporting GHD’s growth. Interested? Apply now.